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Sunday, March 8, 2015

RECREATIONAL POST #4: COFFEE

Unlike many other
drinks such as tea or milk, to me, coffee has a culture to it. When you put the
grounds in a cup and add the water, or put the beans in a cappuccino maker, you
are adding to the rich tradition of many before you. The history of coffee goes
at least as far back as the 13th
century, with a number of reports and legends surrounding its first use. The
native (undomesticated) origin of coffee is thought to have been in East
Africa, specifically from Ethiopia. It may have been first cultivated by Arabs
in the 14th century, but the earliest substantiated evidence of either coffee
drinking or knowledge of the coffee tree appears to have been in the middle of
the 15th century, in the Sufi monasteries of Yemen. By the 16th century, it had
reached the rest of the Middle East, Persia, Turkey and northern Africa. Coffee
then spread to the Balkans, Italy and to the rest of Europe, to Indonesia and
then to America. There are several legendary accounts of the origin of the
drink itself. One account involves the Yemenite Sufi mystic Ghothul Akbar
Nooruddin Abu al-Hasan al-Shadhili. When traveling in Ethiopia, the legend
goes, he observed birds of unusual vitality, and, upon trying the berries that
the birds had been eating, experienced the same vitality. Other accounts
attribute the discovery of coffee to Sheik Abou'l Hasan Schadheli's disciple,
Omar. According to the ancient chronicle (preserved in the Abd-Al-Kadir
manuscript), Omar, who was known for his ability to cure the sick through
prayer, was once exiled from Mocha to a desert cave near Ousab. Starving, Omar
chewed berries from nearby shrubbery, but found them to be bitter. He tried
roasting the beans to improve the flavor, but they became hard. He then tried
boiling them to soften the bean, which resulted in a fragrant brown liquid.
Upon drinking the liquid Omar was revitalized and sustained for days. As
stories of this "miracle drug" reached Mocha, Omar was asked to
return and was made a saint. Since the people’s first encounter, no matter
which one actually happened, it was apparent that the drink itself would stick
around, rather from its energy-boosting effects, or its rich bitter taste.
Although the origin of the first coffee house is a little unclear, the world's
first recorded historic coffee house, Kiva Han, was reputedly opened in Constantinople
(Istanbul). Shemsi of Damascus and Hekem of Aleppo, are generally acknowledged
as our first recorded coffee house proprietors having opened one in
Talchtacalah, Constantinople in 1555. Many believe the real first coffeehouse
in Europe opened in Vienna in 1683 after the Battle of Vienna, by using
supplies from the spoils obtained after defeating the Turks. The officer who
received the coffee beans, Polish military officer of Ukrainian origin Jerzy
Franciszek Kulczycki, opened the coffee house and helped popularize the custom
of adding sugar and milk to the coffee. Mélange is the typical Viennese coffee,
which comes mixed with hot foamed milk and a glass of water. Over time the
coffee bean made its way to the Americas, but the way it got there isn’t the
best of tales. What’s that? You want to hear the story of how coffee got to the
Americas? Okay, but brace yourselves! Gabriel de Clieu brought coffee seedlings
to Martinique in the Caribbean around 1720. Those sprouts flourished and 50
years later there were 18,680 coffee trees in Martinique enabling the spread of
coffee cultivation to Haiti, Mexico and other islands of the Caribbean. Unfortunately,
these plantations were kept up by the slaves, many of them being worked to
death, so yeah it was pretty sad. The territory of Santo Domingo (now Hispaniola,
comprising Haiti and the Dominican Republic) saw coffee cultivated from 1734,
and by 1788 it supplied half the world's coffee. Coffee had a major influence
on the geography of Latin America. The French colonial plantations relied
heavily on African slave laborers. However, the dreadful conditions that the
slaves worked in on coffee plantations were a factor in the soon-to-follow
Haitian Revolution. The coffee industry never fully recovered there. Between
1511 and 1886 over one million Africans were kidnapped and taken to Cuba to be
sold as slaves. Production and selling of sugar was the first use of slave
labor there, but the cultivation of coffee played an equally important role in
the history of slavery in Cuba. Its cultivation has been connected to the slave
trade, slave labor, and harsh conditions on Cuban plantations. Coffee entered
the Caribbean in the early eighteenth century. When coffee first reached Cuba,
farmers welcomed it due to minimal land and machinery requirements for its
cultivation. Slaveholding increased with the expansion of coffee production.
but the practice was enforced by prison-like conditions that created unrest and
inevitable rebellions against the wealthy plantation owners. Coffee production
in Cuba did not last as long as in other countries due to the competition with
Brazilian coffee. I guess whenever I drink a cup of coffee, no matter if it’s
in an empty café or the ecstatic atmosphere of my home, I really do take a
moment to taste whether it may be the strong, full flavor of a Columbian roast
or a semi-sweet taste of a cappuccino. I admire the color, the rich smell, and
the beautiful tranquility that sits in front of me some early mornings, and
late evenings. I drank my first, small cup when I was six. I remember we just
got home from an Easter mass and my mother gave me a small amount if Taster’s
Choice with some French vanilla cream, and I was taken aback by the strong,
bittersweet taste, and I have been in love with the drink since. I wrote my
first short play on a cup of coffee back in the eighth grade. My parents drank
coffee from an early age. My father would tell me about the mornings next to
his mother, watching her grind the beans, and I really love that. Coffee brings
us together, but has a silent isolation in the experience. I sometimes just
want a cup by myself, to reflect, and I have the ability to do that. So, to all
you people who keep hating on the drink, understand where we coffee lovers are
coming from. Sure, I’m against child labor, and slavery, and I stay away from
the companies that do that. I love the drink, and so should you.

Sources:

ncausa.org

selamta.net

independent.co.uk

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